By Markus Zusak

 Australian author Markus Zusak grew up hearing stories about Nazi Germany, about the bombing of Munich, and about Jews being marched through his mother’s small German town.

 At the age of 30, Zusak has already asserted himself as one of today’s most innovative and poetic novelists. Zusak is the award-winning author of four previous books for young adults: The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Getting the Girl, and I Am the Messenger

 The Book Thief is narrated by Death, who finds the story as he walks through Munich after it has been bombed.

 Death is a unique narrator in the story. Most see Death and war as best friends, working hand in hand, but that is not the case in the novel.

 Death sees war as the boss who asks the impossible, making him work to the brink of exhaustion.

 Liesel Meminger is the book thief of the story.  Liesel is a foster child growing up in Munich.

 She steals her first book, The Gravedigger’s Handbook at the grave site of her brother.

 The story is about the power of words and how they can affect a nation and a person

 Hitler uses words to assert power and wreak havoc, while Liesel uses words to cope with a difficult life.

 Color is a reoccurring motif in Death’s narration of the story.  Death associates color with the souls he collects  Death also values colors throughout the book as a means of expressing the scene. Colors are a means for escape from the horror of death, as well as a confirmation of it.

 Throughout the novel, the discussion of dying comes to the forefront. This is a very apparent theme due to the fact that the narrator is Death (who even experiences difficulties with the sheer amount of brutality).  World War II is also in the background, which denotes that death is all around Liesel.  The source of all of Liesel's and Max's nightmares are the deaths of their family members.

 Liesel learns the value of having a voice and knowing how to read.  She also realizes that words are what hold the country under the power of Hitler and Nazi party.  The theme is recurring: Hans teaches her to read at night, the mayor's wife allows her into the library and Max gives her two stories.  As well as being the source of her strife, literature also becomes Liesel's escape from her bleak life.